Albemarle announces two global business units

Albemarle announces two global business units

Albemarle Corp. said Monday it will restructure the company under two global business units: performance chemicals and catalyst solutions.

The new organizational structure will allow the Baton Rouge-based specialty chemicals maker to increase its customer focus, enhance innovation and accelerate growth. Each unit will have its own sales, research and development, process engineering, manufacturing and sourcing and business strategy personnel. The division will be completed by Jan. 1, 2014.

“The leaner management structure will enable faster decision-making while allowing us to redeploy resources to R&D, business development and sales to help accelerate our growth, with a longer-term goal of increasing R&D spending to approximately 4 percent of sales,” said Luke Kissam, Albemarle’s chief executive officer.

The performance chemicals unit, which will include aspects such as fire safety solutions, speciality chemicals and fire chemistry services, will be led by Matt Juneau. Juneau has more than 30 years experience with Albemarle.

The catalyst solutions will include aspects such as refinery catalyst solutions, performance catalyst solutions and antioxidants. D. Michael Wilson, who recently joined Albemarle from FMC Corp., will serve as president of the unit.